


Walking on Eggshells

by TenRoseForeverandever



Series: Domestic Bliss [14]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Dinosaurs, F/M, Fluff, Fluff without Plot, Hurt/Comfort, Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-10
Updated: 2016-04-10
Packaged: 2018-06-01 12:55:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6520597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TenRoseForeverandever/pseuds/TenRoseForeverandever
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the Doctor stumbles into a nest of velociraptor chicks, he inadvertently reveals a bit of information about himself to Rose.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Walking on Eggshells

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a prompt from Timepetalsprompts over on Tumblr: _Dinosaurs, Dragons and/or other prehistoric or mythical creatures_. I chose _dinosaurs_.
> 
> I am ever-grateful to Caedmon for doing a read-through, and finding all the stupid, little mistakes I made. My husband found a few more! Many thanks to him too! That being said, any remaining mistakes are all on me!
> 
> Hope you enjoy!
> 
> Artwork commissioned as a most wonderful gift from Caedmon, and beautifully executed by ceruleanbluesart. <3<3<3 *hugs* to both these extraordinary ladies!

* * *

 

Rose was doubled up, laughing at the sight before her.

“I’ll thank you to shut it, Tyler!” the Doctor grumbled at her, the Oncoming Storm flashing in his eyes.

Rose affected a solemn expression, pressing her lips together to suppress her grin. But when she looked back up at the Doctor, she exploded into laughter again. He stood before her, his brown pinstripes rumpled, his tie askew, and various jagged bits of eggshell and foliage snagged in the fabric of his suit and throughout his hair.  And all around his converse-clad feet skittered a small gang of fuzzy, brown velociraptor chicks, yelping up at him with squeaky voices.

“Are you my Mummy?” Rose guffawed. “That’s w’at they’re sayin’!”

“Yes, very funny. You’re a comedian. Ha. Ha. Ha. I‘ll have you know that I’d make a very good Mummy.”

“Pfffft! Wrong sex, Doctor!”

“Weeeell, Time Lords _are_ gender-fluid.”

That sobered Rose. “W’at?”

“But maternal instincts aside,” he continued, seeming oblivious to Rose’s stunned demeanor, “I don’t know what to do about these little fellas. They’ve clearly imprinted on me when I stumbled into their nest, and they seem a mite hungry. I feel a smidge responsible for them.”

She dismissed his comment with a wave of her hand. “They’ll be alright. Their real mum will be about in a bit. Now, let’s take a few steps back… what does _gender-fluid_ even mean...?”

He didn’t respond, just stuffed his hands in his pockets and averted his gaze to the hungry, young theropods dancing around his legs, tugging at his pants with their sharp little claws and teeth.

“Doctor…”

“Look, Rose, it isn’t a big deal.”

“Ho, no? Seems like a pretty big deal from where I’m standin’, now that you an’ I are…” She flapped her hand aimlessly between them, to illustrate their newly established sexual relationship.

“Well, it’s not. Can we just move on and deal with the problem at hand? Before this lot decide that I’m lunch instead of being their mother.”

Rose blinked away the sting of tears, crossing her arms in front of her. “Fine,” she huffed, silently acknowledging to herself that this discussion was _not_ over. Not by a long shot.

“Good. Now,” he nodded to the velociraptors, “let’s get this lot a good meal, eh?”

Rose tiptoed among the raptors, approaching the Doctor. “’Scuse me.” She nudged the downy, little bodies away with her foot. One of them squawked indignantly at her, and she couldn’t help chuckling.  “Oi! Enough of your cheek! I’m tryin’ to ‘elp ya.” 

She reached into the Doctor’s jacket pocket.

“What are you looking for in there?”

“We packed a lunch, didn’t we?”

“Rooo-ooose..., I was looking forward to those sandwiches. Took ages to make them just the way I like.”

Rose rolled her eyes, and dug deeper into the pocket, her hand closing around the familiar handle of the lunch bag. “Well, it’ll also take ages to get back to the TARDIS. ‘Sides, I don’t fancy the walk with this lot taggin’ along.” She hauled the lunch box out of his pocket, and backed up a few steps through the squeaking rabble.

“They should be eating what they would normally eat! Bread is not good for them.”

“And are you gonna go out huntin’, then, Mama Raptor?” Rose sniped as she plonked herself down on the ground. “’Sides, it’s just the one time, yeah? That okay?” When he nodded his grudging assent, she set about opening up the lunch box. She was astounded by what she found inside. “Doctor, how much were you plannin’ to eat? There’s enough here to feed a small army… which is brilliant, considerin’!”

One of the little raptors, sniffed the air as Rose unwrapped the first sandwich, and it scurried over to her, placing one gentle, taloned foot on her leg, as it reached its muzzle toward the food. It offered a polite, inquisitive peep and looked repeatedly between the Rose and the sandwich. Rose giggled, “’Ere ya go, then, Miss Manners,” breaking off a little piece of the sandwich. The little creature plucked it from her fingers with delicate precision.

Miss Manners’ siblings began crowding around, squabbling and arguing over the food. Rose was soon overwhelmed, trying to divide the food equally among nine greedy, snapping, tooth-lined mouths. “OI!” she shrieked as one tiny tooth caught her finger. The raptor chicks immediately huddled to the ground, perfectly still.

“You alright, Rose?” the Doctor rushed over to her, hunkering down beside her and taking her injured hand in his. He perused the silent balls of brown down that sat motionless in a semicircle in front of her. “Looks like you struck the right note with this lot, then.  When you shouted, it must have mimicked their mum’s alarm call. Their instinct is to obey immediately, go perfectly still. Many of your modern day birds do the same.”

“Guess I have pretty good maternal instincts, too, yeah?”

“Seems so. Now, let’s have a look at this finger.” He turned her hand over, and looked at the bead of blood on her finger tip. “Oh, not too much damage… but, I’ll sterilize it. And put a plaster on it. I’ll apply the dermal regenerator once we’re back on the TARDIS.” He carefully applied a salve and bandaged the finger, finishing just as the raptors were beginning to stir.

Rose handed the Doctor a stack of sandwiches. “’Ere, Mum, you can ‘elp out.”

\--oOo--

It wasn’t long before they found themselves sitting cross-legged, their laps filled with the warm, contented, sleeping bodies of the velociraptor chicks.

Rose snorted. “Not ‘xactly what I envisioned w’en you said _dinosaurs_ ,” she whispered, stroking Miss Manners’ soft, downy feathers.

He chuckled in response. “Since when do any of our adventures turn out the way we envisioned? But, you have to admit, this is brilliant! And…,” he picked up the last sandwich, handing half to Rose, “… I still get to enjoy some of my lunch! Can’t beat it!”

They were silent for a few minutes as Rose chewed on the sandwich and deliberated how she could bring up the topic of the Doctor’s sexuality without him shutting down. It seemed hopeless any way she looked at it.

“Yeah,” she finally spoke, “travelling with you is one brilliant adventure after another! And I meant what I said, way back when: _I wouldn’t have missed it for the world_! No matter what comes next…”

She felt the Doctor staring at her, and kept her eyes trained on her feathery charges.

“I mean, I get that you can change… regenerate and all that. And I just wanted you to know that no matter what, I… I lo–  Well, I’d still… It wouldn’t change the way I feel, yeah, if you were… were a girl.”

He was still just staring.

Her heart began to beat a frantic rhythm against her ribs. “You…? Would it change how you…? Nah. Don’t answer that.” She felt tears threatening again. “Look we better get this lot back to their nest. Their mum’ll be frantic with worry if she finds ‘em missin’.”

“Tell you what,” the Doctor broke his silence, “let’s pop ‘em in my pockets. They’ll be safe and warm ‘til we can tidy up the nest.”

They somehow managed to transfer the sleeping nestlings to his pockets without waking even one of them. There was only one close call when one had opened a lazy eye and, yawning, had stretched out in Rose’s cradling hands. Rose had frozen as the chick fluffed its feathers and snuggled back to sleep against her curled fingers. 

The nest site was a disaster. When the Doctor had fallen into it, he had scattered feathers, stones, vegetation, eggshells, and chicks in all directions. Much of the debris had ended up in the Doctor’s hair, and the chicks, deciding that the Doctor was as good a velociraptor as any they had met, had artlessly followed him.

Maybe he was _species_ -fluid too, Rose contemplated with a curled lip. Was it too much to ask for him to communicate properly? After the startling events of his regeneration, she had hoped that they were beyond keeping secrets of this magnitude. And yet, here they were again, not a week after “ _I was a dad once_ ”, dealing with yet another disclosure that had significant importance for their relationship. To be honest, she was tired of feeling as though she was walking on eggshells around him (no pun intended.) As they rearranged the nest site back to a close facsimile of its original appearance, that elephant in the room, or rather T-rex ( _yes, much more of a T-rex than an elephant_ , Rose thought) lent tension to their mutual silence.   

“Right then,” Rose announced, wiping her hands on her denims, “pass me the chicks… _carefully_!”

“Oooooh, bossy! Think I know how to handle a few baby dinosaurs,” the Doctor snarked back.

“Could have fooled me, fallin’ all over the place and destroyin’ the nest.”

He passed her one small ball of down. “Rose Tyler, I could fill libraries with my knowledge of dinosaurs, and these velociraptors in particular. Which makes me wonder… where are their family? They’re pack animals. Even if Mum and others are out hunting, there’re usually a few others around looking after the brood. The saying ‘It takes a village to raise a child’ really applies to these little raptors.”

“Yeah, until the village idiot strolled in and mucked everything up!” She placed the first velociraptor in its nest.

“Yes, weeell, I was… rather distracted at the time…” He sniffed, handing her another chick.

Sarcasm laced her words. “Distracted? You? Pull the other one, why don’t you?”

“Weeell, your bum looks especially nice in those jeans and I wasn’t watching where I was going and… weeell, the rest you know.”

Rose scoffed. “Seriously?” But she couldn’t help feeling a little thrill at his words. If this was some half-arsed attempt to make her feel better, it was working, she supposed.

“Could write volumes about the perfection of your bum, too,” he muttered under his breath.

Rose pretended she hadn’t heard, but couldn’t resist letting a small smile curl over her lips.

As they continued to nestle the chicks together to keep them warm, the Doctor finally spoke again. “Here’s the last one.”

“Do you think they’ll be alright, Doctor?”

“Hard to say… I’m worried about the lack of adults.”

“Could we… could we stay for a bit, just to make sure?”

He nodded, pointing to the high branches of a tree close to the nest. “How about up there?”

“Alright, I just wanna make sure they’re okay, first.”

“They’re fine, Rose,” he chided, tugging on her hand, drawing her over to the tree. “Who’s being the mother hen now?”

Relenting, Rose allowed him to give her a leg up to the first branch of the tree. He followed and from there, they scrambled up into the thicker foliage, finding a broad, solid limb that afforded a good view of the nest. The Doctor sat, straddling the branch, his back against the trunk, his arm securing Rose, who sat in front of him.

“Have you ever… been a woman before?” she ventured after sitting in silence for what seemed like hours.

“Nope. I’ve always regenerated as male.”

“I meant what I said, earlier… It wouldn’t change how I feel.”  She had said she hadn’t wanted to know how he felt in return. But, if she were honest, she really did.

“You can’t know that.”

“Yes I can. You’d still be the same man… I mean person… inside. Wouldn’t you?”

“Mostly, yes.”

“But some things would be different?”

“Yes. There’s always something different in every regeneration. You know. You’ve seen the changes: the foods I like; mannerisms; what I like to wear; what I’m good at. One time, Rose, I was obsessed with cricket! Another time, I played the recorder! You just never know what you’re going to get. I never know how I’m going to react to things, people, anything really.”

“Oh…” Rose swallowed hard, words sticking in her throat.

“Rose…”

“Never mind, Doctor.” She pulled forward out of his embrace, and swivelled around so she was sitting with both legs on the one side of the branch. His words had stung, but she understood that he was just being honest. The truth hurt sometimes. But, she supposed, it was better than not knowing.  It was a few minutes before she found the courage to speak again. “So it was jus’ chance that you still… liked me after that last change? Lucky me.”

“Rose… I never said that.”

“I get it, Doctor. Forever isn’t really forever for you. It’s as long as you’re in this body. Something I just have to get used to, yeah.  You’re not human.”

“No, I’m not, but–”

“Shush!  Look!” she hissed, pointing to the ground. There, nosing around the nest was a slender, feathered creature about the size of a large turkey with a long, thin tail. The babies responded to her presence with the same excited squeaks as they had the Doctor.

“That’s a female! It’s Mum!” he mouthed back at her. “The males have a blue crest of feathers on their heads. The females don’t.”

“No wonder the little ones mistook you for their mum! She’s dressed jus’ like you: brown suit, with stripes. And a blue collar.” She couldn’t help but laugh.

“Honestly, looking back, I’m beginning to think they were just hungry, Rose. And even after I all but destroyed their nest, they didn’t perceive me as a threat. They were so desperate. I mean, look at Mum. She’s seen better days. She must be on her own, somehow. A single mum, eh? Tough work to feed a brood that size on your own in this day and age… and protect them. She’s brilliant, she is!”

They watched in silence as the mother velociraptor spread her feathery arms and nestled down among her brood, eventually falling asleep.

“We could ‘elp ‘er, yeah?”

“Rose…,” he warned.

“Please, Doctor. Please? We could stop by ev’ry so often, yeah? Jus’ to make sure they were fed. Then Mum could ‘ave more of the food she catches for ‘erself. They know us now… So…? Could we?”

“No more sandwiches… they need meat, not bread. And no thoughts of adopting one. I don’t need this situation getting domestic. Velociraptors are not pets!”

“I know that! Though, Miss Manners is awfully cute…”

“Rose…,” he growled.

“Don’t worry, Doctor. I’m just windin’ you up! Soooooo…?”

He groaned in submission, and assuming victory, Rose swung around on the branch to face him, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Thank-you!” she chimed.

He shook his head in defeat. “I never could say no to you, Rose Tyler. Not when I wore leather. Not now. And not in any body yet to come, male or female.”

Rose pulled back, certain scepticism was written on her face in clear, bold letters.

The Doctor cupped her cheek. “Rose, since the day I met you, you have changed me. You’ve become an integral part of me that I don’t ever want to live without.”

“But, if you regenerate again...”

“Some things stay the same, Rose. Important things. Things that make me… me.”

She just looked at him with wide eyes, delighting in the feel of his thumb stroking her cheek, as she allowed the meaning of his words to sink in.

“ _You_ are one of those things. I wouldn’t be who I am without you. I might not even be alive. You might say I’ve imprinted on you… From the very first day we met, until the very last breath I ever take.”

“Blimey!” Rose sighed, mind blank except for her joy in his words and the love in her heart.  He tugged her face toward his, capturing her mouth in a tender kiss.

\--oOo--

They travelled forward a few days at a time over the next several hours, watching the little squawky bundles of down mature (in fast-forward) into sleek, adolescents. One by one, they disappeared to make lives of their own, and although the Doctor rolled his eyes and muttered under his breath about the impropriety of interfering with the natural course of things, Rose could tell he was proud of the progress the young velociraptors were making.

After a dozen or so jumps forward, Rose’s heart dropped when she found the nest site empty, all the young raptors having ventured out into the world. Unbidden, hot tears drizzled over her cheeks. She sniffled, and the Doctor’s arm wrapped around her, pulling her in for a comforting hug.

“Everything grows, changes, taking its own unique path through the universe. They’re off doing what they’re intended to do.”

“Doesn’t mean I love them any less,” Rose snuffled. “I think I love them even more for havin’ had this chance to know ‘em as they grew… changed.” She squeezed his hand.

He ran his fingers through her hair, pressing a kiss to her crown, when they were interrupted by an impertinent chirp. 

Rose wheeled around at the sound. “Miss Manners! Doctor, it’s Miss Manners.” She looked up at him, beseeching, fresh tears welling in her eyes.

“Go on, then.” He rolled his eyes.

She grinned, whirling out of his arms and skipping over to her little friend. Miss Manners seemed just as delighted as Rose was, nuzzling into Rose’s hair when Rose knelt down beside her. Rose stroked the sleek, mature feathers on Miss Manners’ little head, and gave her a small kiss on the snout. “Bye then, sweetheart,” she whispered. “I think you’ll be alright, now. And, you know what,” she said, glancing back at the Doctor, “I think me an’ the Doctor’ll be alright too, yeah. So glad I got to meet ya, an’ all your brothers and sisters. Go and ‘ave brilliant adventures of your own!” She gave the raptor one last gentle pat, and backed away into the Doctor’s waiting arms.

* * *

 


End file.
